Afrasianet - Abd Al Hamid Siam - In authoritarian states, an individual leader creates militias that owe their loyalty to him personally, lavishes lavishly on them, keeps them out of the well-known security apparatus and implicitly allows them to break the law without accountability, investigation, or sanctions. This pattern of pro-leader apparatus appears to apply to the new Immigration and Customs Enforcement Administration under U.S. President Donald Trump in his second term, after the failed experiment of the mob who tried to take over the Capitol on January 6, 2021, under the pretext of stealing the election.
When this Trump-sized apparatus kills civilians, the administration's first reaction is to accuse the victims of carrying weapons and terrorism. Trump is obsessed with the grandeur that comes from power. He admires the idea of deploying arrogant armed men with a little wisdom and a lot of arrogance to punish cities that defy his orders. All indications are that he will continue to curtail freedoms and target immigrants unless Congress reins in him. Next November, there are the midterm elections, which are usually considered a referendum on the performance of any president after two years in the presidency.
We expect that the legislative map will be redrawn and that the Democratic candidates will sweep the election, form a majority in the House of Representatives, and perhaps improve their presence in the Senate as well, giving the party a chance to condemn or at least brake Trump. But between us and that date, there are nine months in which we will see wonders.
A government waging war on its own people
In an article by the famous New York Times writer Thomas Friedman, he said that Trump is the least American in the history of all American presidents. He said that he works on the basis of "what the country can offer him, not what he can give the country", echoing President John F. Kennedy's famous saying. The story of the persecution of immigrants, legal and illegal, does not differentiate between the two, began with Trump, in his first term, when he promised to close the border and deport thousands of whom he called murderers and rapists. But this time he went too far.
Militias or those closest to the militias called ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Group) have opened fire on those who try to flee in front of them, detain children to force their parents to surrender, hold meetings and shouts that some of them should kill more. 37 years after he was shot by immigration officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The latest incident comes amid widespread daily protests in the "twin cities" of Minneapolis and St. Paul since the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good on January 7, when an ACE agent was shot dead while she was in her car after launching a crackdown on illegal immigration.
Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis to protest Trump's anti-immigration campaign. It is known that the state has the largest number of Somali immigrants who, with the help of the sons and daughters of the state, brought Ilhan Omar to Congress. Dozens of institutions have closed their doors as part of a coordinated action against security operations targeting migrants in the state, amid outrage also fueled by the detention of a five-year-old migrant child.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner said that "violent repression must stop." The mayors of these cities have begun to coordinate efforts to counter these campaigns. Recourse to the courts has also become an important phenomenon where those who have reached the age of displacement are brought to justice. Since July, federal courts have seen at least 2,300 cases in which the courts have ruled that immigration authorities have illegally detained people without bail or due process. Politico reporter Kyle Cheney shared some of her cases in a series of posts on the X platform, saying, "This is a remarkable case," referring to Sonic Manaserian, an Iranian woman of Armenian descent who professes the Baha'i faith.
According to a court order issued by the Central District of California in the Manasirian case, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a 70-year-old woman with chronic illnesses, who came to this country to escape religious persecution and applied for asylum, lived here peacefully for 26 years, complied with all review requirements and conditions of release, had no criminal record and posed no danger to anyone, without notification or following the procedures imposed by their regulations, and without any plan to deport her. They kept her held for months without adequate medical care, and they have no reason to justify these actions.
Popular pressure
Popular demonstrations against Trump's policy have begun in many major cities. Last Monday, Washington witnessed mass demonstrations demanding the removal of the "ICE" forces outside the capital, and the rest of the American cities, denouncing the policies of US President Donald Trump in the immigration file, which led to the death of a number of people in addition to the daily violations that are witnessed on the American streets.
The freezing temperatures, which reached minus 10 degrees, and snow that blocked the streets and sidewalks of Washington after a snowstorm, did not prevent the demonstrators from attacking the Trump administration's policies aimed at deporting migrants. Demonstrators chanted, "From Minnesota to D.C. (Washington, D.C.), we will not back down until you leave," "If there is no justice, there will be no peace," "We want immigration troops off our streets," "Minnesota we are proud of you," "Against deportation and with freedom," and raised slogans of "Troops." Immigration Out of Washington Now, "Justice for Alex Pretty," and "Justice for Renee Goode," are calling for a full-scale strike, as happened in Minnesota last Friday, Jan. 30, to rally and carry out a strike in the capital.
Freedom and Socialism Party member Rhea (who gave her first name only) said in a speech at the event that she had spent her last days in Minneapolis, describing the situation there as "much worse than what the media is picking up. It is a city in a state of all-out war with the state." "After weeks of hunting residents in cars without license plates, and assaulting and disappearing neighbors, what I saw in Minneapolis reveals what happens when a government chooses to wage war against its own people, but I have also seen what happens when people decide to confront," she said. "There's a lot of hope, through organizing and responding quickly to what happened during the uprising in response to the 2020 killing of African-American George Floyd. It is a city that sees the participation of all categories from schools to businesses, unions, mosques and churches.
Last Tuesday was a day of rage, as thousands of demonstrators came out of schools and workplaces in a number of US states, to participate in a national strike to protest the policies of President Donald Trump's administration, coinciding with the anniversary of his inauguration as president of the country, and this move was called the "Free America Strike", in a move described as the first organized call during Trump's presidency for a mass withdrawal from workplaces and institutions Although the scale of the demonstrations was not large due to the extreme cold and snow, they came in the context of a wave of repeated protests in the United States over the past year, in which millions of Americans participated on various occasions in rejection of the policies of the current administration.
According to Reuters, thousands of workers and students took part in demonstrations in cities and on university campuses, while the capital saw school students march to announce they were leaving their classrooms in protest of the Trump administration's policies.
In every incident Trump himself violates the law, he holds his opponents responsible. In Prity's case, the official version said he approached immigration officers and was armed and had no choice but to shoot in self-defense. But video later released showed the man holding only his cell phone.
The video shows a group of officers surrounding the man, initially using non-lethal tools and then hearing gunshots. Unit officials refused to cooperate with the investigation. Local state investigators also prevented from arriving at the firing site. Even after they issued an official warrant allowing them access to the shooting site, they were again blocked, indicating a flout for the law and a premeditated plan to shield those who fired the shooter from accountability.
Moments of pushing and stampede, then there was a heavy cordon by several officers, and the use of tools Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry said he spoke with Trump administration border official Tom Homan and explained to him that "the city of Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws." Trump responded on Truth Social, asking a person close to Fry to tell the mayor that "this statement is a serious violation of the law, and that he is taking too many risks!" What are the cases of violation that U.S. constitutional law experts acknowledge that Trump has violated?
Trump in violation of the First Amendment: The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is dedicated to protecting a number of civil rights, the most important of which are: "the right to freedom of expression, assembly, and protest." This includes the right to monitor and protest the actions of the federal government.
The First Amendment also protects against government retaliation for such acts, as these rights are meaningless if the government can suppress them with retaliation. The government has no right to target and punish anyone for their views or other actions protected by the First Amendment.
But under the Trump administration, it is impossible to limit the violations of these daily rights in Minnesota, as well as those across the country. Obstructing the work of law enforcement authorities is not a protected act, but any video that shows an ICE officer arresting or pepper spraying a supervisor who does not obstruct his work is documented evidence of unconstitutional retaliation for a protected act.
Every time a police officer physically assaults or detains a person simply as a watchdog or protester, it is a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In a lawsuit brought by a group of observers in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul seeking a halt to ICE's practices, federal Judge Kate Menendez concluded this month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement likely violated the First Amendment rights of two of the plaintiffs when its agents arrested them in what appeared to be retaliation for their surveillance.
Trump in violation of the Fourth Amendment: The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. It is impossible to count all the ways in which federal officials violated the amendment in Minnesota. For example, Chunglei Thao, a U.S. citizen, was arrested when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke into his home with their weapons. They refused to look at his identity, dragged him out of his house in only his underwear, through the snow, and took him away.
When they realized he was a citizen an hour or two later, they sent him back. This is a blatant example of unconstitutional behavior. Jill Hasday, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Minnesota School of Law, says, "The government has no right to enter your home without your consent unless it has judicial permission from a judge."
Trump in violation of the Tenth Amendment: The latest amendment to the original Bill of Rights states that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, and not prohibited by the States, are reserved to the states, or to the people." It is, in essence, a guarantee of state sovereignty in areas not granted to the federal government. Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul argue in their lawsuit against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deployment that Operation Metro Surge violates the Tenth Amendment, as the federal government has effectively infiltrated the Twin Cities to force the state to turn over voter data and enforce cooperation with immigration law enforcement, which is not binding on the state.
An attorney from the Minnesota Attorney General's Office told Menendez during Monday's hearing: "They are trying to hijack the state's legislative process. They are trying to force us to hand over voter registers. What does this have to do with migration? The federal government is trying to conform to the will of the state to its will, which is not permitted under the Constitution."
Trump in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment: The Fourteenth Amendment, enacted in 1868, guarantees that "no State shall enact or enforce any law which shall detract from the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; no State shall deprive any person of his right to recourse to justice without due process; and shall not deprive any person within the the scope of its jurisdiction of equal protection under the laws." As the text states, the amendment was aimed at the states in the aftermath of the Civil War, but the Supreme Court applied much of its protection to the federal government.
The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment were trying to eliminate state-sponsored violence against blacks such as police raiding their homes, stealing their property, hunting them for violent treatment and even massacres, which is shockingly similar to what is happening to people of color in Minnesota today. Congress and overthrow this president before he topples the country and the people?
